Ten intrepid sailors departed in mid-July by plane and automobile (not trains) for Traverse City, Michigan, the self-proclaimed Cherry Capital of the World, and home to an annual Cherry Festival.  Bill and Cathy chose to drive, and Jack and Joel carpooled as well.  Due to schedule demands, Jacki, Jane, Henry, Mia, and Steve chose to fly.  Some keen fare-watching by Jane found it was cheaper to fly to Grand Rapids and drive the three hours, than fly into Traverse City.  Somewhat fortuitously, there was a Costco a few miles from the airport. Steve wanted to stop in for “just a few things,” but of course ended up with much, much more.  Little would go to waste, however.

Everyone arrived safely at Bay Breeze Yacht Charters by mid-afternoon.  The skippers, assisted by the first mates, did the usual boat checkout, and then it was off to town for dinner, finding a quiet Irish pub that wasn’t mobbed like many of the restaurants by the Cherry Festival lingerers.  In the morning, Dave, the owner of Bay Breeze, conducted a chart briefing.  Although sailing across the lake to Wisconsin is not normally permitted, Dave allowed us to do so, based on his experience with the Club three years ago.  He also reviewed expected weather patterns, explaining that the winds would vary from the southwest to the north, and then swing back, but never from the east.

Bay Breeze also had a professional photographer doing a shoot to update their website and literature, causing a little bit of a departure delay, especially for Mia and the crew of Northern Breeze, a 2010 Hunter 45DS, which was recently added to the fleet.  Most of the crew found themselves in the frame at least once as Dave pointed out the boat’s finer points.  However, everyone was off by 11:00 and enjoyed favorable southwest brisk breezes for a couple of hours.  This made for a good beam to broad reach to our first stop, Northport, on the tip of the Leelanau peninsula, which forms the western side of Grand Traverse Bay.  The winds did ease in mid-afternoon, but then kicked in again at 10 – 15 knots for the rest of the sail.  After setting the anchors, we all took the dinghies in for a walk about town.  Many homes had beautiful flower gardens, and a few had some very eclectic lawn art, such as an old pedestal sink being used as a flowerpot.

On Sunday, prior to departing, Steve and his Juicy Fruit crew made a quick dinghy run back to town to Barb’s Bakery to get some world famous cinnamon twists for breakfast, and a bag to go that would carry them through for the next few days.  Then it was on to South Manitou Island, part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  Due to the very light winds, Northern Breeze chose to motor the whole way, and spend more time exploring the island.  They visited the majestic south-facing lighthouse, but missed the elusive, rumored tiki bar (or maybe they made up the rumor out of wishful thinking as they hiked across the island).  Juicy Fruit sailed for the morning, hoping for the wind to improve, which it didn’t, so on went the iron jenny for the rest of the way, still arriving in time for a brief walk around the park, including a walk to Florence Lake and visiting the building ruins of the camp that used to serve as the base for the logging business that went on here many years ago.

A 7 AM. start on Monday for both boats was a must in anticipation of the long sail across the big lake.  The winds were southwesterly and over twenty knots.  Taking the southerly route rounding South Manitou for a better angle on the winds put us head on with four to six foot seas.  This would only be temporary until we could clear the shoals and the wrecks and set a course for Washington Island at the mouth of Green Bay.  Fortunately, by the time we turned onto our course, the seas had eased quite a bit, and we set sail close-hauled for what would prove to be the best sail of the week.  As the day progressed, the winds eased to under twenty knots, and both boats set full sail, and averaged close to seven knots for the remaining thirty miles or so of the fifty mile trek.

As we came in sight of land, our idyll was disturbed by the very persistent Wisconsin welcoming committee – dozens of horseflies and hungry little black flies.  But we managed to win the war of attrition, for the most part, making a mental note to pick up a fly swatter the first chance we got.  Arriving at Detroit Harbor on Washington Island we discovered that neither marina on the island had a working pump-out facility, which we desperately needed.  Apparently this is not an uncommon occurrence, and a local septic tank service was contracted to do the dirty deed.  After showers, it was dinner at the dockside eatery.  To the delight of Northern Breeze’s crew it was made up to look like a tiki bar.  No matter, after a long day’s sail, and the late hour, convenience was the primary concern.

Tuesday’s layover found everyone doing their own thing.  Jane, Jacki, and Henry took the island tram tour.  Cathy, Bill, and Joel rented bikes and rode into town.  Mia and Steve also rented bikes and rode around the island. One highlight of the ride was a stop at the Jacobsen Museum. Jens Jacobsen was the self-appointed island historian, collecting many interesting artifacts of daily life on the island in its early years.  He also seemed to have saved many artifacts from the town dump that probably didn’t need saving.

Dinner that evening was at Nelsen’s Hall Bitters Pub, an old establishment with some new owners.  Everyone on the island is very friendly, and since we didn’t have cars and it was too far to walk, we asked if Nelsen’s could pick us up at the dock.  The owner, who is also the chef, was very obliging.  He arrived with his eight passenger van.  Somehow all ten of us found a place to sit, and not on someone else’s lap.  The Bitters Pub is a reference to an old tradition there, the Bitters Club.  To join the club you must drink a shot of Angostura bitters.  Mia, Jane, and Bill took the challenge, and now have membership cards to prove it!  At the conclusion of our delightful repast, we piled back into the owner’s van for the return to the marina.  It may be my imagination, but it seemed like there was a little less room this time, after quite a filling meal.

The plan for the next day was to sail around Green Bay on the way to Sister Bay, only about sixteen miles away.  However, rain and localized thunderstorms killed that idea and we dodged between storms to motor the whole way.  After taking our slips, we were pleasantly surprised to hear a bluegrass concert on the lawn next to the marina.  Alas, there were no more storms that day, but once settled nobody was ready to go back out for a sail.  The rest of the afternoon was spent lolling around or exploring town.  Jacki and Jane were determined to find a way to get to Bailey’s Harbor, our originally planned destination which had been changed due to shoaling there.  Jacki and Jane found it no less difficult finding a taxi or car service that would accommodate them.  Various suggestions were made – “rent bikes,” “rent a Segue,” “walk” – but it was nine miles, and even the rental shops for bikes and scooters were far from the town center.  Both boats found restaurants to their liking that night, with Northern Breeze’s crew braving the town’s tourist Mecca: Al Johnson’s, a Swedish theme restaurant complete with goats grazing on a grass-covered roof (who knew rooftop goats were a Swedish thing?).

Thursday was intended to be a layover day to sightsee the Door Peninsula from Bailey’s Harbor, which forms the eastern side of Green Bay.  Sister Bay is a little more isolated from the rest, and has yet to recognize tourism as a viable source of income, so there was not much to do, especially since the marina stopped renting bikes!  Bill and Cathy walked about a mile to play “Adventure Golf,” an Up North version of miniature golf that Cathy insists did not involve windmills.  Mia walked a couple of miles inland to find the closest Geocache.  Everyone else walked the town some more, caught up on reading, and otherwise recharged their batteries for the looming long sail back across the lake.  Instead of dining out, we spent the evening enjoying an extended cocktail hour aboard Northern Breeze – a raft-up party without the rafting up -- so much simpler.

It was up at the crack of dawn for the 6:00 AM departure for our return odyssey across the lake.  Recalling that Dave, of Bay Breeze, had told us before we left that they never have east winds in the upper lake, we were looking forward to another spectacular crossing.  However, someone forgot to tell the wind gods, because we had over twenty-five knots of east winds, and a nice sea state to go with it,  about six feet.  Juicy Fruit set full sail, close hauled on a SSE course, counting on a predicted favorable northerly wind shift during mid-afternoon.  Less trustful of the weather prognosticators and observant of the planned 50 mile route, Northern Breeze preferred reefed sails and motoring into the seas to stay closer to the lay line.  This was after two hours of hard sailing had put them just five miles further east.   Albert Einstein once said that insanity was doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result.  In this case, it was in believing the wind forecasts.  This trip, as well as three years ago, they were consistently wrong.  Alas, the winds did not shift until very late in the afternoon.  So, after a twelve hour crossing, Juicy Fruit arrived back at South Manitou Island, having sailed the whole way.  It wasn’t long after the anchor was down that that Joel had the grille fired up and ready for some succulent pork medallions, accompanied by boiled potatoes and a house salad, dressing on the side.

With a mix of sailing and motor sailing, Northern Breeze passed between North and South Manitou Islands around 5:30.  The cruising guide said South Manitou’s harbor was great in all conditions except a north-easterly.  Looking into it from the north they did not see any masts, so they sailed on and reached Leland at 7:30 – just thirteen and a half hours after departing Sister Bay.  The cruising guide said it was possible to anchor inside Leland’s seawall and that was the plan.  But upon motoring into the enclosed “safe harbor” it became clear that there was not really enough room.  The sight of a dredge at the far end was also ominous.  Mia made contact with the harbormaster, who offered free tie-up along side the dredge (“I had a boat that drew seven feet there last night”), or raft-up to a boat at the end of one the T-docks.  No sooner had she offered that than one of the dock crew broke in to say the boat she was suggesting was much smaller than Northern Breeze – not a good idea.  A discussion ensued between harbormaster and dock crew, while Northern Breeze milled about smartly in the small pond.  Mia requested permission to land at the fuel dock so they could sort it out.  Permission granted.  Once the big Hunter was secured to the fuel dock the harbormaster consulted her watch and said, “I could let you stay right here and close up early.  You’d have to let anyone else who comes in raft up to you, and be out by 8:30 in the morning"   Done.  The dock crew, dismissed a half hour early, was particularly pleased with this arrangement.

Still expecting Juicy Fruit to come in, although repeated attempts at radio communications during the day had failed, Northern Breeze put out fenders, and then most crew took off for a walk while Skipper Mia turned on the Olympic opening ceremonies (satellite TV is fun to have sometimes) and put together an early must-go dinner.  While she worked, Steve called on the phone to report being comfortably anchored at South Manitou, the northeasterly apparently having calmed enough and the seas flattened enough that conditions were good.  Soon after, a small powerboat came puttering into the harbor looking lost.  After watching it enter one of the channel and come back out, Mia asked if they wanted to raft up.  They accepted, so Northern Breeze had company for the night after all.

All week, the winds had generally favored our direction of travel, or if not, were strong enough to allow progress with some tacking.  Alas, on Saturday morning we awoke to find the wind still out of the north, and greatly abated from the day before.  It continued to dwindle as the day progressed, so it was motoring all the way to our next stop, Suttons Bay.  Both crews toured the one-street town, giving in to some ice cream to cool off (Michigan was still experiencing a heat wave) as well as bargain hunting in a few shops.  Rafted up, we had a traditional must-go party, yet there was no way we could finish all the provisioning we had brought aboard.

Our final day saw almost no wind.  However, considering the awesome winds we had for most of the trip, particularly when we needed them to cross the lake, no one felt deprived of sailing time.  We returned to the charter base by noon, completed our usual departure activities, and headed home satisfied that we had completed another successful Sailing Club trip.  Next Great Lakes trip: Mackinac!